Someone recently said to me, “Life shouldn’t be this hard.” Meaning, if you’re trying to fit all the pieces together and your spouse is doing the same, it seems as if the road should be fairly smooth. Sure there’ll always be potholes, but it shouldn’t be like the roads in Philadelphia (no offense intended to Philadelphians – they are after all the worst roads I have ever driven) where you’re in a new pothole before you’ve left the previous one.

The only thing for certain is that there will be troubles, trials, struggles and all like manner of things in this life. Some will struggle more and some less – uncertain what’s that’s all about – but we all will struggle.

On February 26, 2009 at 4:14pm I installed a mouse odometer on my work computer. A novelty with no purpose except entertainment value.

Here is the running status of my poor overworked mouse.

As of today, if it were walking at an average pace, my mouse would have burned 402 calories. I thought it was shrinking.

The cartoon says it all. Looks like a very enjoyable pastime.

The first impressions on descending into a submarine are those of discomfort and suffocation. The accommodations for a crew of 30 seem about right for a half a dozen. One is in too close proximity to whirling machinery, too, to enjoy the sensation.

“When under way on the surface, the submarine hums and trembles. The fumes of gasoline are about suffocating. Some of the men contract what is called ‘gasoline heart’. If underwater too long the fumes make one sick and dizzy.

A novice cannot remain in a submarine underwater for any great length of time without suffering excruciating torture – it is when the submarine dives that the most unpleasant symptoms come. There is a tingling sensation all over the body, a pounding of the eardrums, and possibly a sense of nausea.

“Sometimes when the engines are running to charge the batteries, the fumes of the gasoline become so strong that some of the men are rendered unconscious. They must be taken up on deck then to get a whiff of fresh air. For this reason the batteries are only charged when above water. But in time of war it might be necessary to charge them while running below.

“When caught in a storm in a submarine, life is really not worth living. It consists of a series of intense struggles to prevent death by being battered against steel walls or to keep from becoming involved in whirring wheels and dynamos. If you survive the ordeal, you conclude that it is not necessary to wait for war to find hell. It is with you all the time.
From Harper’s Weekly, May 6, 1911

Well, it has improved a LITTLE in the last 98 years.

I cannot imagine a married couple that doesn’t want everything to be the best it can be. It would be akin to not wanting to enjoy life.

I understand that desire and action are two completely different beasts, and there are many reasons why action is not legs to desire. A few I can think of are laziness, fear of consequences or the fear of making things worse. Either apathy or disdain seems to be the end result of lack of action.

Action, good, constructive action, requires giving of self. It makes you and me vulnerable, the rewards can be great but the wounds can also be great. The greater the possibility of return, the greater the possibility of harm. So here we sit on our worn out conservative sofa, miserable and hating it all because we don’t make a choice take action.

Of course we all like to say we’re “stuck” in the rut, but are we really stuck or have we made the choice to stay?

What follows is a piece that I am plagiarizing in it’s entirety. It says more, much more succinctly than I can. So here goes…. and thank you to PageTutor.com for your brilliant work.

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”…
A billion dollars…
A hundred billion dollars…
Eight hundred billion dollars…
One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I’d take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slightly fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet…

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Next we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?
It’s pretty surprising.

Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…

(Oh, did you notice those pallets are double stacked!)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.

It has now been just over two weeks since I began to monitor the distance my computer’s mouse move over the course of a day. I am proud to announce that after 14 days my mouse has traveled over 2 miles or .000000000000358320 light years.

I don’t think I’ll switch to recording distance in light years just yet.

In preparation for my upcoming party.

A YouTube video that says it all White and Nerdy.

How many of these can I check off my list?

Many sources say that memorization is good for the mind. It seems to make sense. Use it or lose it, as they say.

An additional benefit is not in the future, it’s the here and now. Yes, I can memorize a set of facts to pass a test, but what about memorizing to see with greater clarity? Memorizing helps my brain connect the phrases and see a thread of connection that others seem to pick up so easily. Sure, it’s a lot of work – but the rewards can be great if the right material is committed to memory.

I’m slow. Less than two weeks ago it came to me that simple memorization has its limits. I could take it a level deeper by trying to understand the context of what I was memorizing. Who was it written/spoken to? Who is is speaking? Why is he saying it? As I understood this, I tried to get into the feelings behind the words and they became three-dimensional. Wow! What depth!

To many of you these hurtles are not required, but there are many like me who need a tool like this to bring added depth to what they are learning.

Now, what do I do if I have no flair for drama?

So, if I stop making my house payment – I can get help to keep my house, but if I continue to make my payments on time I get to help YOU keep your house.

I wonder if this promotes responsibility? I wonder if this will teach the lesson not to take on more debt than you can handle? I wonder what good can come out of allowing someone who can’t afford their house to stay in their house?

Oh yeah, I get it! Those that couldn’t afford their houses get a loan modification so when the house prices begin to go back up they can get even more from their homes while I am still upside down.

Capitalism or socialism?